“Awake!” Helps Smokers Quit the Habit!

FIFTY MILLION. That is how many people smoke in the United States alone. Of that number, two thirds would like to give up the habit. And little wonder, for in the United States, almost 400,000 people die each year as a result of using tobacco products. In France, 65,000 persons die annually as a consequence of smoking. In Germany the figure is 70,000.

With a view to saving lives, Awake! published a series of articles on smoking in its July 8, 1989, issue under the theme “Death for Sale.” The cover photograph​—a skull with a cigarette in its mouth—​was both striking and disturbing. It made a dramatic counterpoint to the concluding article, “Ten Ways to Stop Smoking.” The question was, Would the issue really help hard-​core smokers?

Rolf, one of Jehovah’s Witnesses living in Germany, decided to find out. He had a colleague who had been a heavy smoker for many years and had tried to stop several times but without success. So Rolf gave him a copy of the “Death for Sale” issue of Awake! The result?

“With the help of the advice offered in Awake!” reports Rolf, “he has not smoked for 18 months. Whenever he felt the need to reach for a cigarette, he pulled the magazine out of his desk, and the sight of the skull with the cigarette in its mouth was sufficient to keep him from smoking again.” This dramatic turn of events did not go unnoticed by others. A second colleague asked the first how he had managed to stop smoking. He was handed the Awake! and told, “With this.” The result? He too quit smoking and has now stayed away from cigarettes for over a year!